When I first heard of Fighting with My Family earlier this year I thought, "great, another dumb movie with The Rock" and I avoided it. Then about a week ago I read a blogger saying it was fun and entertaining, even if wrestling is not your cup of tea, and I decided to give it a shot.
The film tells the true story of professional wrestler Paige/Saraya Knight (Florence Pugh). Born in a family of wrestlers, she joined the family business at 13, even though she didn't love it as much as her family, especially her brother, Zak (Jack Lowden). Five years later, both her bother and she find themselves competing for the same WWE and Saraya is the only one picked among all the participants. While she is pushed to new limits by coach Hutch (Vince Vaughn), Zak must move past his dreams of making the WWE.
The fact that it's based on a true story doesn't prevent Fighting with My Family from being a predictable "underdog overcoming the odds" tale that deals with themes of family, friendship and dedication. In other words, nothing we haven't seen before. Because of its predictability, I found the story to be unevenly engaging and occasionally boring. It does, however, do a good job at showing the hard work that goes into becoming a professional wrestler and it certainly made me appreciate this sport a bit more.
The same can be said about the characters as they too aren't anything we haven't seen before. Still, director and writer Stephen Merchant did a pretty good job at writing human and relatable characters and developing them — although some of the relationships between the characters develop too rapidly and feel rushed because of this, like something was missing.
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| Lionsgate UK, Mirror Releasing, Universal Pictures |
The cast does a very good job. Florence Pugh gives an intense and believable performance as Paige, and conveys Paige's inner struggles very well. It's Jack Lowden, however, who steals the show — he has certainly the most to do as Zak must deal with disappointment, anger and envy, and he conveys all that effortlessly. As for the rest of the cast, Lena Headey and Nick Frost do a good job as the negligent but protective parents, and Vince Vaughn is not terrible in the more serious but predictable role of the tough coach.
Fighting with My Family is also quite humorous with its mixture of British humour, slapstick and dad jokes. With all that being said, the film didn't fully work for me as I never really felt the drama, the story wasn't always engaging and entertaining, and the comedy fell flat at times. Also, The Rock, who plays himself, is barely in the film. I'm not sure that's a negative thing, though.
